<![CDATA[Post-divorce hadanah disputes at the Syariah Court of the Federal Territory of Putrajaya are generally channelled first to the Sulh Council before the matter proceeds to the full conference. This institution reports a high level of settlement, but the report does not isolate hadanah matters from other types of family claims, so the success figures do not necessarily reflect the quality of protection for the child. This article analyzes how the sulh process really contributes to protecting the best interests of the child and what factors determine its success. The research uses a juridical-sociological qualitative approach with primary data from semi-structured interviews with a Sulh Officer and a Syariah High Court judge, as well as secondary data in the form of laws and regulations, work manuals, and statistical reports of the Sulh Section of the Federal Territory Syariah Court for the years 2022 to March 2026. The results show that the contribution of sulh does not lie in the high percentage of administrative settlements, but in four interrelated mechanisms: selective referral screening, facilitation of neutral communication, formulation of operational parenting terms, and judicial endorsement as a layer of judicial review. The success of sulh is supported by the presence and good faith of the parties, the competence of the Sulh Employee, and the clarity of terms, and is hampered by absences, post-divorce emotional conflicts, and imbalances between the parties. This study contributes by emphasizing that the assessment of the success of sulh in hadanah cases needs to distinguish administrative settlement from substantive consent that truly protects the child, as well as being the basis for improving the way institutions record and report their data]]>
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